ON THE
RISE

New library’s public art collection becomes more striking with de la Torres’ elevator work

Public art commissions being installed in the new Central Library

Donald Lipski, “Hiding My Candy” (auditorium): Lipski is an East Coast-based artist with a number of public works on high-visibility sites, including New York’s Central Park and Grand Central Terminal. His San Diego installation is his first here and his fourth library work (he has pieces in libraries in Denver, Minneapolis and Kansas City, Mo.). See profile at
utsandiego.com/libraryart/lipski.

Einar and Jamex de la Torre, “Corpus Callosum” (first-floor elevator bay): The regionally based de la Torre brothers, who work on both sides of the border, will create an assemblage of glass (their signature material), photomontage and “found” objects.

Gary Hill, title TBD (fourth floor): Born in California and now based in Seattle, Hill is one of the pioneers of video art, and his installation will involve three pairs of video monitors (with screen arranged as if an open book). The content of the monitors is still evolving.

Roy McMakin, title TBD (reading room): A graduate of UC San Diego, the Seattle-based artist has frequently shown in San Diego (including a solo show at Quint Contemporary Art) and is also working on a public art piece for the airport expansion. For the library, he’s creating unique pieces of furniture.

You have options concerning artists Einar and Jamex de la Torre’s new installation at the Central Library downtown.

You can bypass it by taking the escalator. Or you can use one of the secondary elevators.

“I guess that’s your prerogative,” said Einar de la Torre.

Otherwise, you are a captive audience to the de la Torres’ monumental new artwork, “Corpus Callosum,” which they’ve been installing over the past two weeks.

Their colorful, illuminated lenticular prints will flank both sides of the library’s central glass elevator (think of lenticular prints as seamless, digitally created stained glass). And they’re installing eight metal-framed dioramas in the shaft itself. Visible through the elevator’s glass walls, four of them are inspired by nature and the other four by humankind.

“They gave us a really sweet space for artwork, which is the elevator shaft,” said Jamex de la Torre during a break at the library. “And then they took it away from us. And then they gave it back.”

As his brother Einar explained, “There was a moment where the people who are in charge of the elevators were against anything being in there. But it all got cleared up.”

The de la Torres are an inspired choice for the library’s most visible piece of public art. Born in Guadalajara, educated in Orange County and Long Beach, and for more than a decade headquartered in San Diego with a second location near Ensenada, they embrace in their work every aspect of San Diego, from tourist town to border city — just like the library.

“Our work is complicated and layered,” said Jamex de la Torre. “So being in a library is a good fit for the way we think. Because we just conglomerate things. And a library is a conglomeration of knowledge.”

Following directives

When the brothers were selected nearly a decade ago to install a work in the off-again, on-again Central Library, the precise location and the nature of their piece was undetermined. Not even the architect knew where the work would be placed.